Once I got the mower started, I began on the side yard. The mountain of limbs and trunk that had constituted Spring’s tree was now smaller. I’d been steadily working it down, cutting it into manageable sizes and stacking it next to our shed. My dad had wanted to hire a crew to take it all away, but I wanted to save as much as I could. If the acorns packed a metaphysical punch, who knows what properties its wood might have.
I started in and immediately appealed to Phred—my personal god of lawn mowing. I’d been praying to him ever since I’d started mowing. He was sort of a goofy nerd experiment that I knew was silly, but for whatever reasons, when I was a bit dumpier and allergic to physical labor, it seemed to help me endure the hard slogging, the heat, the exhaustion, and the sweat. This time, I didn’t recite my little rhyme asking for an easy mow. I started talking to him.
Phred, if I needed you before, I really need you now. I need some advice...
Spring, of course, had been eavesdropping.
Hey, I can give you advice!
I need some advice from a wiser and greater being than myself. Now shush please... Phred, what the hell am I going to do? If I marry Colette, I’m afraid for my family jewels, and how am I going to tell my parents? Is there any other way forward that would keep my friends and family safe? Give me some of your grassy wisdom
,
Phred...
I mowed a couple more strips in internal silence. At least without any thought loud enough to be heard over the roar of the mower.
How’s that praying working out for you
,
Finn?
I sighed.
No one’s home.
Not very grateful
,
is he? You’d think he’d have time for his only follower.
I agreed, but realistically, you probably needed to have thousands of followers to create a god...and to live in a fantasy world.
Maybe you ought to talk to the Big Guy?
I don’t know
,
Spring, I haven’t prayed for a very long time. Seems kind of shallow to ring him up now and ask for a big favor.
When I was done with the mowing and trimming, I still didn’t feel sorted out, so I went to work on the woodpile. Who would have ever guessed that I would find release and contentment in hard work? Certainly not me.
I took a break and made a futile attempt to wipe the sweat from my eyes and the wood dust from my chest and stomach. I’d taken off my shirt to save it from the grass stains and wood chips, but I was still hot and sticky. I leaned on my ax and looked around. Jen sat watching me with serious eyes under one of the young oak trees at the edge of our new back yard forest. The oaks were less than a half year old and already twenty-five to thirty feet high.
I ambled over and plopped down next to her.
She forced a smiled and said, “Hail mud-boy.”
It was a nickname given to me by a woman I had worked the dig with. I tend to sweat profusely and when I worked the dig during the hot summer day, I got coated in dirt mixed with body juice. Jen hadn’t been on that little adventure, but my friends had made it a point to tell her. The name irked me when my friends (or my dad!) said it, but somehow when Jen said it, it didn’t bother me at all.
“Easy for you to say, lounging under a tree eating bonbons and lemonade.” I grabbed her half-full glass and downed it.
“Hey!”
“Voyeur tax.”
She actually blushed, which in turn made me happy. “Want me to get you a refill?”
“No, your mother would be annoyed if you tromped through her kitchen like that.”
I grinned at her. I leaned back on my elbows and looked up at the blue and white sky. It was one of those Ohio days where you couldn’t easily tell where the clouds ended and the sky began. There was just a gradual fade from white to light blue. As the sun lowered in the sky, the division became even less clear.
We sat in amiable silence for some unmarked time. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t ashamed to be seen without a shirt. My pudgy stomach and boy-boobs had been transformed into padded muscle. I was still a little soft around the edges, but I didn’t let it bother me. This peace lasted until the first mosquito of the evening tried to get to my juicy brain through my ear. I slapped it away, carefully not smacking my ear, and jumped to my feet.
“The skeeters found me. That’s my signal to go in.”
I gave her a hand up, and we headed back to the house, where I let her hose me down. She got a little over enthusiastic, and it turned into a water fight. It was great fun and both of us were laughing by the time I called a truce. She looked like a drenched cat. Her shirt clung to her and emphasized her generous endowments, lacy bra, and clear evidence of the coldness of the water. She smiled knowingly at my attention, and I wrenched my gaze away. The water on my skin vaporized from the heat she’d generated.
We spent a pleasant dinner with my parents. Both of us carefully downplayed the day. According to us, we’d been visiting with Colette to try and see how we might help each other. Afterward, we watched a couple of old reruns of
The Big Bang Theory
—which represented my friends and me with eerie accuracy. It was good to laugh again.
After that, I excused myself and went to bed.
***
Around eleven-thirty, I was in bed playing Minecraft on my iPad when Jen gently knocked on my open door. I hastily jerked my sheet up over the Caduceus sitting on my bare chest. Thankfully, it wasn’t either of my parents. Jen stood in the doorway in one of my old T-shirts. Given everyone who’d been borrowing them lately, I was quickly running out. In this case, I didn’t mind. It looked good on her. Really good, and the two sentinels guarding her twin peaks gave vivid testament to her lack of a bra.
These were not things I should be noticing. She was Gregg’s little sister, for crying out loud!
Spring noticed the display too.
Whoa, nice ta-tas.
Ssshhhh.
I wrenched my gaze to Jen’s face, and her troubled look made me feel like a pig. “Uh, hi, Jen. What’s up?”
Ooooo. Damsel in distress! I’ve seen this in lots of movies. She’s coming to you for comfort, and in no time, you’ll be givin’ her the ol’ comfort stick!
God Spring, you’re such a pig,
I thought to her. I squeezed my eyes closed to get a little time to compose myself.
“Are you okay, Finn?”
I opened my eyes and looked at her again. Now she looked concerned.
“No, no, I’m fine. Just spending too much time playing...”
“Can we talk?”
“Sure, of course, you can always talk to me.”
She stepped into the room, closed the door behind her, then sat down on my bed.
Spring was dancing a little jig in the back of my mind.
Oh, yes! It’s happening! Tonight’s the night my sun grows up and becomes a man.
“So...uh Jen...what’s wrong?” I cursed my shaky voice. Her face fell even more. I think she’d been crying. Perversely, this knowledge helped me focus on her, not on her assets. I kicked myself and tried to be there for her. “Have you been crying?”
“I’m just so angry.” That was more her style. I hadn’t seen her cry, except in anger, for years. “Finn, you can
not
marry that bitch!”
I wasn’t expecting that. “Uh, well, it might be the best way, ya know?”
“No, I don’t know.”
“What else can I do?”
In one smooth motion, she shifted around and lay down next to me. She dropped her head on my chest. I was grateful that my legs were up and hiding my body’s feelings about her near-nude proximity. The soft warmth of her body pressing into my side through her thin T-shirt was very distracting. I tried to find a place for my arm and finally put it around her shoulders and pulled her into a (brotherly!) hug. She obviously needed it.
She snuggled in. Her smooth and shiny black hair nestled under my chin. I marveled at how she fit me so naturally. Minty flowers and spice filled my nose, and I found myself closing my eyes and eagerly breathing it in.
“What can I do, Jen?”
Her hand moved out over my chest, causing me to twitch. She picked up the Caduceus from where it lay.
“I love the way this feels. The way it seems like it has secrets that only it knows.”
“Yeah, I, uh, love the way it feels...”
Are you talking about the stick or those warm, soft breasts pressed against you?
Spring, stop it!
“Thank you for mine,” said Jen. I’d had to twist Dave’s arm into giving her one of the gold pendants, but she would be able to put its hoodoo to better use than either of us.
“Uh, sure. No problem.”
She put the black stick back down and moved her hand across my chest. That simple warm touch was incredibly erotic.
“Do you like me, Finn?”
I swallowed hard. “Yeah, sure, I’ve always liked you. That’s why I invited you to game with us.”
“Maybe I should have said it this way—do you think I’m pretty, Finn?”
Danger
,
Will Robinson! Danger!
cackled Spring.
“You’re beautiful, Jen. I love you... like a sister.”
The hot spot created by her hand captured my complete attention as it moved lightly across my chest and stomach. I struggled not to let out a little gasp.
Aw, come on Finn, even you can’t be this dense!
I ignored Spring and tried steer back to safer conversational waters. “Did...ah...you have another idea for what we can do?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“Make love to me.”
My voice squeaked as I forced it out through near-paralyzed vocal cords. “Jen, I really like you, but not that way...I don’t think that would be a good idea...Gregg—”
Her hand went south and her touch there stopped me in my tracks.
She pulled back, sat up, and grinned at me. “Gregg doesn’t get a vote, and from the size of your magic stick, I’d say you really do like me that way.”
She crossed her arms, grabbed her shirt, and with one smooth move pulled it off over her head.
Her breasts’ springy bounce as they escaped their confinement captured my eyes and wouldn’t let them go. They were impossibly beautiful latte mounds with peaks of dark chocolate. My sudden need to taste them overwhelmed everything else. She stood up on spread knees, arched her back, and showed off her breasts, a lot of skin and a little landing pad of hair where her underwear should have been.
I gaped at her and tried to speak. It came out as a whisper. “Oh God. I don’t think...I don’t have any protection...”
“Don’t worry, two virgins is about as safe as it gets. I’ve got everything covered.” It surprised some little rational part of me that she was still a virgin. She was pretty and bold and I’d just assumed...
I didn’t even bother to try and deny my own virgin status. I’d never made love to a human woman. Spring was a dryad and therefore didn’t count.
Spring, you haven’t been pumping out the hormones again
,
have you?
I saw a Cheshire cat’s grin in the back of my mind.
Nope. You made it
pretty clear that’s a no-no. This is all you. Now ride-em
,
cowboy!
I slammed down a cone of silence in my mind, with Spring on the other side.
“What’s Spring think?”
“I uh, how did you...?”
“You always get a bit glazed when you two are talking.” I really had to get better at hiding that. Jen gave me a wicked smile. “She’s telling you to go for it, isn’t she?”
I dropped my eyes. They snapped to the soft suggestion of a mound rising under the landing strip pointing to the promised land between her thighs. In a panic, I wrenched my gaze back up. Her familiar mischievous grin lit her face with life and emphasized her slight, sexy dimples. What did she ask? Oh yeah, Spring, “I uh… that is Spring, uh, wants me to jump every woman I see.”
“You should listen to her tonight.”
Oh God.
She dropped and crawled over me. Suddenly I was looking at her face to face, and I could feel the soft touch of her breasts on my chest. It sent waves of crazy desire through me. She knocked my tented legs down with her knees and straddled me with her long, strong, athletic legs.
She sat back once more and arched her back, once again thrusting her chest forward. My brains liquefied and all thoughts fled, save one. I groaned. A sudden memory of Spring on top of me in this same pose flashed through me. I struggled against the wave of passion cresting within me and lost. I hesitantly reached out gently to touch her, afraid she would run away or turn to smoke. When she didn’t do either, I ran my fingers over the smooth silk of her stomach and was struck with wonder when she responded eagerly to my touch. I took a chance and lightly caressed her breasts. She gasped, began to move, and Good Finn, the guy on the side of the angels, took a bullet to the head.
***
Afterward, Jen snuggled up to me, pressing her body against my side and nestling her head into my shoulder. I was dazed and bemused and this felt so good and right that the guilt barely registered. I could have stayed that way forever.
She said softly from my chest, “You’re mine.” The words zinged from my ears, down my spine, to my toes and back again, leaving a thrill of wonder and trepidation.
“Not that skinny, oozing, disease-ridden, French crotch-rocket.”
Yep, she still had a way with words. I snorted and ran my hand up and down her arm for few moments. I couldn’t think about Colette right now. It caused shorts in my brain circuits. I’d wanted to be this close to Jen for a very long time, even though I had tried to deny it. I couldn’t let anything spoil it. Still...
“But Jen, what—”
She pushed herself up, threw a leg across me, and straddled my chest again. She leaned forward with a hand on either side of my head till her large almond eyes were inches from mine. Her gaze was commanding and intense, and her mouth thinned fiercely. I was a bit intimidated, but despite that, I couldn’t help but notice something brushing my chest in a feather caress—two somethings in fact. My little soldier approved and only an act of extreme self-control prevented me from crushing her to me again.